Greetings again, this time from Guadalupe, underneath Volcan Baru, the highest mtn in Panama.
Two days ago, a guy from the UK arrived here took a walk up the road and saw this ocelot, people have been here a month and not seen one. Grr! Grr! Not only that it hung around and posed for photos!
Nr here is the Amistad Park, and co-operative area between Panama and Costa Rica - basically a huge area of rain forest. Had a couple of hikes - wondeful - and have seen some quetzals, though my piccies need cropping b4 I can stick em up here.
The quetzal is a beautiful bird, green and red with the male having very long tail feathers. It is a symbol of freedom here in Central America, and was one of the goals of my trip.
Again the pictures are in the wrong order, so apologies for that.
Over christmas I stayed at Santa Catalina, I surfer spot - I managed to catch a few waves one day, and on xmas day itself I went diving and saw a large shoal of juvenile rays and a load of barracuda.
A lot of the children got kites for presents and were having great fun running up and down the road.
In the afternnons it generally started raining, and raining tropically - in minutes paths would become small rivers. All my clothes, which isn't a lot were dampo and smelling. My books which got wet during a ride through three hours of rain were going mouldy... Still a bad day at the beach ... :-)
Spent new year on small island named Boca Brava, really great place with a relaxed atmosphere - plus one or two cuba libres on New Years Eve with dancing and Panamanian music. Howler monkeys on this island, but difficult to get good photos of them.
Had some problems with the bicycle - the chain broke twice, so the folks help have some new bits DHLed out here and hopefully we'll be all right now.
While waiting for the parcel, I took some Spanish lessons in Boquete, the other side of this mtn, but I've got a bit more to do b4 I can speak like a native! As I stayed a there a while got to meet a few people - nice English couple heading for Equador on a 6 month sabatical started in Mexico I think.
Back in David I went out on a day trip to some hot springs with a Dutch girl on her gap year before medical school - she'd spent some time in Guatamala and Honduras doing volunteer work and was heading for Equador and the Galapagos. Made me laugh - she knew the Dutch expression "You know how the cow caught the rabbit", but didn't know the answer which is "It stood behind a hedge and made a sound like a lettuce".
I'm a bit fitter now, think I've done around 750km, but still finding it hard going. Up in the mtns it is cool, but getting up is tough. Down it is flatter, but much, much hotter!
Next hop is over to Costa Rica and to a park on the pacific coast, hopefully to see Scarlet Macaws and more :-)
Hope all is Ok in Ingleterra - it is raining here at the mo, so reminds me of home!
All the best Chris
